[ t e x t . o n l y . v e r s i o n ] [ b y . c y c l o n e . w e h n e r ]
Five years ago when South London's Basement Jaxx delivered their first EP
via their fledgling indie, Atlantic Jaxx, few in the UK club scene paid
them much attention. But how times have changed. Now house music's most
unlikely heroes, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, are blowing up the spot
with their first full-length set, "Remedy". Basement Jaxx call their brand
of house 'punk garage'. So is this Anarchy In The UK for the nine-nine?
Growing up in his father's vicarage in Leicestershire, young Felix's
exposure to popular music was severely restricted. Apparently Reverend
Buxton imposed 'his parameters of life' on Felix until he left for
university. He was lured into the hedonistic club culture, and took up
DJing soon after. Sweet rebellion. In the interim, Simon, also a sometime
student, started cutting dance records in his own makeshift studio. His
background was entirely different. Spending much of his youth in Wales,
Simon came from a broken home. Eventually Felix sought him out because he
was looking for a collaborator. The seeds were planted for the leftfield
Basement Jaxx. But, back then, the duo just wanted to be the British
Masters At Work.
There is a healthy dynamic to their partnership. Still, it is essentially
music that is the pair's common interest. 'We get on really well,' says
Felix. 'I think we're very English about the way we do music together in
the studio -- very diplomatic. We discuss everything and try and persuade
the other that our point of view is the correct one. So it's a battle of
ideas most of the time. We're both into music. Simon probably comes a bit
more from a rock background and I'm probably more from a strictly club and
dance music background, I guess. But we both appreciate good music. The way
we work is I probably give more of a kind of vision and a direction,
because, I suppose, Basement Jaxx started when I went to see Simon and
said, "I want to do this thing". He was the guy who had some equipment and
knew how to put a record together, so he was an enabler in the beginning.
But, musically, it's become very much a two-way thing. I'll probably give a
picture, a general direction and an idea, and I'll work more on the lyrics
and the vibe of the thing. Then Simon definitely concentrates on the
production and the sound -- that's more important to him, whereas I'm not
so bothered.'
Until now, Basement Jaxx have maintained an underground presence -- the
focus of which is their own venue in Brixton, named 1998's 'Club Of The
Year', by "The Face". The American DJs were among those who first picked up
on Basement Jaxx's production endeavours -- Tony Humphries, Louis Vega,
even Derrick May. The pair's earliest successes came with club anthems like
"Samba Magic" and "Flylife". Then came their comp, "Atlantic Jaxx: A
Collection". In the past these studio partners have also completed mixes
for everyone from the Pet Shop Boys to INXS, but now they are pulling back.
Basement Jaxx even turned down Madonna. Felix suggests that they want to
create their own credibility. They don't need Madonna to validate them.
Which seems fair enough.
And they do want cred. They want it a little too much, perhaps, Felix
concedes. 'We do care too much what people think, which we shouldn't,
because when the press starts saying that we're no good anymore, and that
we were the fashion and now we're crap, then we're gonna find that
difficult to take. But, realistically, it happens to everyone. So we'll
just have to see.'
Basement Jaxx completed their long-awaited album in the second half of last
year. However, the pair then decided that the project wasn't 'exciting'
enough, so they trashed much of it. A few tracks were salvaged -- and about
five of these appear on "Remedy", albeit in a 'slightly altered' form. 'We
just felt that the album ran out of steam, and in the second half it just
didn't happen as much as it should -- it didn't go in the right
directions,' Felix points out. 'So we thought that we needed to rethink.'
The final version of "Remedy" is an exuberant party set that encompasses
Latin, soul, R&B, electro, house and ragga.
At any rate, nothing could have prepared the duo for the ecstatic response
to "Remedy's" lead-off single, "Red Alert", though Felix implies that this
was in fact conceived as the album's token crossover track. Indeed, the
flashy video says it all. Even Felix's 'Victorian' father was impressed
when he was asked to portray the pastor in the clip. 'He really enjoyed
it,' Felix chuckles. 'My parents loved it. They came down to London and
they saw all the film equipment and all these people. They were really
excited; they felt like they were in the big wide world.'
Oddly enough, the innovators to whom Basement Jaxx most often give props
these days are not the inevitable house producers, but rather a couple of
players from the urban music scene: Virginian producer Timbaland and East
Coast rapper Busta Rhymes. (An earlier mutation of "Red Alert" actually
utilised samples of Busta.) So what is the appeal? 'Well, it's probably
"eclecticism" and "experimentation", which are two words that people in
house and techno particularly use all the time, but they never actually
carry into their music. They still just have a kick drum banging away with
a little noise on it. But, with Timbaland, it's the way he has taken the
rhythms of R&B and hip-hop and he's moved them forward. He's made a
template of what rhythm can be, used emphases and just taken any samples --
like, he's got a baby crying in one of his tracks. You know, he is more
techno than a lot of techno people! He's experimenting and there don't seem
to be any boundaries ... And Busta Rhymes is another person who has got his
own individuality in his music, he's exciting and, yeah, he's unique. And
Timbaland is as well. So anyone who's doing their own thing and pushing
music forward is cool.'
While Basement Jaxx may feel that most club music lacks adventure, they
themselves continue to be held in high esteem by their peers. Needless to
say, Felix clearly views their American counterparts as being a little ...
over the top, if not crazy. Basement Jaxx have been recruited for Armand
Van Helden's Wu-Tang Clan-inspired super-posse of house producers known as
Da Mongoloids. 'Armand, Roger and Junior Sanchez were over here in the UK
and they were like, "We've got this club, do you wanna join?" And we're
like, "OK. I'm with it". And nothing happened.' In interviews Armand has
since speculated about the possibility of this international clique (which
also includes Daft Punk and Ian Pooley, among others) recording an album
together. Yet Felix, ever the sceptical Brit, finds the idea more than a
little absurd. 'Unless we have a very long mixing desk and a few channels
each,' he laughs, 'then I can't really see how we can do it.'
"Remedy" is out through Shock. |